Congressman Ken Buck stopped briefly in Akron on Thursday, June 1 and visited the Colorado Plains Regional Airport and talked with Randy Hayes, manager.
Buck sat down with Hayes and asked him to talk about the FAA and what comments Hayes had. As Hayes said after Buck had left, “He asked me, which I wasn’t expecting, so I decided to tell him how I felt.”
In his comments, Hayes let Buck know he was not too happy with the FAA and some of their new rules and regulations and how he feels they are wasting taxpayer’s money.
“This airport has a rich aviation history. The airport has been in its present spot since 1959, but aviation in Akron began way before that,” Hayes said.
He mentioned that the airport has six businesses and several of those operate in other countries, including Red Line Aviation.
“I feel the FAA has put into effect some rules and regulations that are not needed for smaller airports. We just finished a project with lighting on the runway and I feel it could have been done a lot cheaper and faster, if there hadn’t been so many rules first to obtain the grant and then what we had to do to fulfill the requirements of the grant. We could have used local contractors if it had been allowed under the grant. The FAA has a mandate to promote the aviation industry, but it has become very political. Their bureaucracy has become entrenched,” Hayes said.
In continuing, Hayes added, “We could do three times as much work if there wasn’t so much paperwork involved. The FAA is more interested in the major airlines than they are in smaller airports, but we play just as important of a role. The FAA has an enforcement mentality for the major airports, but it carries over to smaller airports and it is not needed for smaller airports. Safety is important in aviation, but there is a difference in airports.”
“The FAA needs to change their mentality from enforcement to one more of service and less control. We need to encourage more United States manufacturing and take steps so businesses can do it cheaper in our country, rather than make it so expensive here to ship products and materials they need. The FAA needs to be less oppressive with their regulations. As I said before, we need to be a safe industry, but the FAA is getting way too political and has way too many rules and regulations.”
After listening to Hayes, Buck and Hayes went to Red Line Aviation and visited with owner Dan Jensen and listened to him about the FAA and their rules.
At the end of the visit in Akron, Buck said, “I have had people at airlines all through the state tell me how much the FAA and government is too involved and are too controlling.”
Buck will take these comments back with him to Washington, D.C. and see how he can get them to help back him on some of these problems.